FIG. 1 depicts a high-level view of a user 100, i.e., a customer, entering a post office box business 102 having a post office box 104 therein, e.g., a post office or a retail establishment which provides post office box services. A post office box is often a numbered box in a post office assigned to an entity, e.g., a person or organization, within which mail for the entity is retained until collected.
In accordance with a nominal scenario, user 100 travels either from the user's home 106, from the user's office 108, or from another location to business 102 in order to check the contents of post office box 104 and determine whether a new item has arrived in the box. Travel between the user's home 106 or office 108 is time-consuming, often requires the use of a vehicle and attendant expenses, and user 100 has no indication as to whether mail is in post office box 104. Thus, many unnecessary trips may be undertaken by user 100 wherein the user arrives at business 102 only to find out no mail is present in box 104.